The Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon, already one of the top 20 marathons in the country, is now listed as one of the nation's 10 most enjoyable marathons, according to Runner's World magazine. Runner's World put the "Pig" in such exclusive company as the Walt Disney World Marathon in Orlando, Boston Marathon, Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in San Diego and the ING New York City Marathon as the most fun for participants.

"The marathon adheres to the 'flying pig' theme down to almost every detail," says Runner's World, "with costumed runners, volunteers known as 'grunts,' 'squealing fans' lining the sidelines and an official race mascot greeting runners at the 'finish swine.'" The article continues, "a carnival-like postrace party awaits runners and their families with food, music, rides, games and face-painting."

My friend Scott and his niece Heather were running this half-marathon and invited me to run with it with them. This was the first HM for both of them, the second for me. The race start time was 6:30 a.m., so I was up by 3:30 for coffee and oatmeal, and drove to Scott?s house so we could leave by 4:30 for the hour drive to Cincinnati. Here we are at Scott?s house before we left.



I had two goals for this race:
1) to finish in less than 2 hours (My first HM I finished in 2:03:56), and
2) to make it the whole distance without using the port-o-pottie.

I figured if I could do the second one, I could do the first one.

When we got there and parked, we went into Paul Brown Stadium to use the restrooms and hang out until race time. It was about 51 degrees, but windy and felt quite chilly. Here?s where I screwed up. I turned on my Garmin to see what time it was and it asked me, ?Are you indoors?? Sure I was indoors, so I said yes. I?m still new to the Garmin, and I?ve never used it indoors, and did not realize that that meant that it would not keep my pace when I started the stopwatch, so when the race started, I got a few hundred yards into it and realized that I had no pace setting. I fiddled and fussed with it as I ran, then ended up re-setting the problem, but I lost the time on the first mile. I re-started the timer at about 1.1 miles and just used the HR and pace features after that, giving up on having a stopwatch.

Fashion Report: blush luminescence lipstick, black Nike running skirt, hot-pink TriksTee sweetsilk running top, fug, Saucony Trigons, lime green/white.

This was the biggest crowd I had ever run in. Last year there were more than 15,000 people between the marathon and the HM, and supposedly more this year. I tried to crush in with the 9-minute mile group, but still spent the first mile running around groups of walkers, 2-3 abreast in the middle of the road. There were lots of kewl costumes, including a group wearing hospital gowns open at the back showing rubber naked butts put on over shorts. The course was lovely, starting out by crossing over the Ohio River into Kentucky, where we ran for a while before crossing another bridge back to Ohio while a train crossed beside us, then wandering around with the downtown skyline of Cincinnati overhead. There was crowd support almost the whole way, over 60 bands apparently on the whole marathon course, and I did remember to thank the volunteers at each aid station.

I was aiming at keeping a pace of 9:00/mile or less. I was just watching HR out of curiosity. Oddly enough, my HR shot up immediately the first few miles, averaging 194 in mile #2, and actually shooting up to 213 at one point! I?ve never seen my HR that high, and have thought my MHR was about 180. However, by mile #3 my HR was back down to a reasonable 148, and my average HR over the race was 153.

Here are my mile splits AFTER the first 1.1 miles:

Mile 2 ? 8:30
Mile 3 ? 7:55
Mile 4 ? 8:01
Mile 5 ? 7:54
Mile 6 ? 8:35
Mile 7 ? 9:00
Mile 8 ? 8:47
Mile 9 ? 8:18
Mile 10 ? 8:56
Mile 11 ? 7:27
Mile 12 ? 8:09
Mile 13 ? 7:11

Miles 6,7, and 8 were mostly a steady uphill climb of about 400 feet, according to the elevation chart, but it sure seemed more than that when I was going up them. They just went on and on. After mile #9, we came back down the hill and at one point (mile #11) I was sprinting faster than I had ever run I think down the longest hill I have ever run down. I kept thinking, ?This is a recipe for injury,? but wanted to make up the time I lost on the way up the hill. I got to mile #11 and the clock read 1:55, and I thought, ?Oh no, I?m not going to make it under 2 hours!? But that clock was wrong, because the next one said 1:44 or something. Just after the 12 mile marker, I knew it was time to give it my all. Just then, I saw a man running just ahead of me wearing a shirt that said, ?I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.? (Philippians 4:13). What perfect time to ponder on that message, as I dug deep and ran hard for that last mile ? I actually got a 7:11 that mile, probably the fastest mile I have ever run.

Official Results:

1:49:58 Chip time
686/5570 Overall
183/3436 Females
25/447 AG (40-44)
AG/Grade 63.5% (I don?t know what this means)

This time was a PR over last year?s flat course in Xenia by 14 minutes ? much better than I expected to do. I know I will never be a really fast runner, but this is the fastest I could have hoped to be. What a difference a year makes!

Here?s me with the pig after the race:



Scott and Heather came in at about 2:02 ? very good for their first HM, and Scott did not have any of the knee problems he worried about. All in all, it was a great experience, I had a great time, and my friends also had a great time, too. I would like to do this one again next year, maybe even the full marathon.

Thanks for listening?

ETA - I did NOT wear my mp3 player for this race.


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Holly[/URL" target="_blank">



http://This message has been edited by hollys4874 (edited May-06-2007).